Intermediate Language -The .NET Virtual Code

The applications written in C# are not traditional Windows programs compiled into machine code. Rather, the C# compiler generates CIL code, often referred to as managed code. This code is dedicated to run safely within the .NET environment. In fact, the CLR takes care of the back-end part of the compilation before execution, allowing the possibility of JIT translation from CIL code into native machine code without compromising security. On the other hand, unmanaged code, such as that generated by C/C++ compilers in the Windows environment, uses native and potentially dangerous instructions (for example, pointers). Like Java bytecode, CIL is also virtual machine code and is therefore completely independent of any underlying processor architecture. It is fully cross-language compatible on the .NET platform, offering at the time of this writing support for many different programming languages. Therefore, all programs implemented in any of these languages and compiled into CIL may share components without any extra effort.